A Little Clarification

Disclaimer: This is lengthy, and has some kinda graphic drawings of the reproductive system of males/ and some babies. Don’t feel bad if you have to return to this several times to finish it. I did!I am sure there a misspelling and grammar errors. I don’t care.

I have been asked to give a little more of a lesson in the male reproductive tract/how it pertains to my husband’s diagnosis. I will try and do my best- and if you have any questions just let me know. I am a nurse, so sometimes I technical/medical terms are natural to me and I don’t even realize that I use them. I forget not everyone knows what some things mean. 🙂

Okay, first with the NORMAL male anatomy. You have to know NORMAL to get ABNORMAL!

The main things I know/ am talking about with my husband’s condition are the bladder, prostate, seminal vesicles, ejaculatory duct, and vasdefrens. These were looked at when he had this trans. rec.tal ultrasound.

Short run down on what they all do:Bladder: Urine storage until voided out.

Prostate:Stores and secretes a clear, slightly alkaline fluid constituting up to one-third of the volume of semen. Raise vagina.l pH.(25-30% of semen)

Ejaculatory Duct:Begins at the vasdeferens, passes through the prostate, and empties into the urethra at the Colliculusseminalis. Causes reflex for ejacula.tion. During ejaculation, semen passes through the ducts and exits the body via the penis.

Semi.nal V.esicles:Convoluted structure attached to vasdeferens near the base of the urinary bladder. About 65-75% of the seminal fluid in humans originates from the seminal vesicles. Contain proteins, enzymes, fructose, mucus, vitamin C, flavins, phosphorylcholine and prostaglandins. High fructose concentrations provide nutrient energy for the sper.matozoa as they travel through the female reproductive system. (bet you didn’t know you could get immune boosting Vit. C from a little ora.l s.ex did you?)

V.as Def.rens: Muscular tubes connecting the left and right epidi.dymis to the ejacu.latory ducts to move sper.m. During ejac.ulation the smooth muscle in the vas defer.ens wall contracts, propelling spe.rm forward. Sperm are transferred from the vasdefere.ns into the urethra, collecting fluids from accessory s.ex glands en route.

So basically the Sper.m is made in the testes, stored in the epididimis while it matures and waits for “Deployment”(for some reason I refer to sperm/fertilization process as military operation I don’t know why), travels through through the vasdefrens. When the troops get their “Order” The Seminal vesicles secrete the fluid that mixes with the sper..uh, troops, then the ejaculatory ducts take over and give the final “CHARGE!!!” orders- with a little more traveling fluid..and propel the troops through the prostate into the urethra were we all know what happens…

INVASION OF THE OVUM!!! Or at least we wish it would happen this way. God knows I do.

Okay.” WTFdo I need to know that for” you might be telling yourself- I learned all that in the health class…either 6th grade or 10 grade depending on what part of the country you lived in. (I moved in 6th grade, so I got the humiliation TWICE!!!)

Now onto Pr.une Bell.y Syndrome or P.B.S. I have described what it is HERE if you want to read about it in that post. I am going to presume you have read it, and know what I am talking about.

With King.man’s distended bladder in utero there were a lot of other things that did not grow and develop properly because of that. The distended (bloated) bladder caused his seminal vesicles, prostate, and ejaculatory ducts not to develop. If you think it about it, it makes perfect sense- The bladder was so large it filled the area that these things were supposed to grow and develop in. If that area/space in the abdomen wasn’t there- they couldn’t grow.

To the right is a picture of what a baby looks like with P.B.S, the kidneys and bladder, and a young boy with the typical belly. Not a beer belly, not a pot belly. A belly to be proud of- one that means he is a lucky boy. Okay I digress.

Now I am going to go over what my DH’s US showed. I am using a little bit different picture for this b/c I have found in my life- sometime seeing things at a different angle helps to understand things better. Some anatomical pointer/descriptions are left out this- but it is still a good picture.

His bladder was distended and the formation of the seminal vesicles did not happen. When he had his US- they were little slivers of membranes- supposed to be big and hugely engorged with seminal fluid. You can see from the image on the right- how you would expect that….and why it wasn’t found in my DH. That is in and of it self can cause low semen volume. As you read before those vesicles amount for 65-75% of the semen volume.

From there the semen/sper.m goes through the prostate- which my husband basically doesn’t have one. He had to have a procedure has a child to ‘tack up’ his bladder to prevent incontinence…I dont‘ understand this procedure, and he remembered it when the Bu.tt cam was in action so I don’t know much about it.

The end result of that surgery was a small prostate that is basically seen in men that have had a TUR.P or a “Transure.thral res.ection of the pr.ostate” Here is an image of what it basically looks like to the right. As you can see the prostate is pretty much gone, as is the ejaculatory duct. Here is where the other 25-30% or so of the semen come from.

Getting the picture? Hope so….b/c I don’t know how else to describe it. I am not really good a quick answers- and I definitely like pictures.

King.man didn’t get a testicular ultrasound to look at his epididemis– and I think this is a very important next step. The specialist we are going to in May has done a LOT of sperm retrievals– the different types are for ANOTHER LONG POST if anyone is interested. 🙂 I am comfortable with this…but King.man wants to do the one were he can be awake during the procedure. I am trying to explain to him that this might not be a good thing- needles, scalpels, etc. invading the barracks can really stress a person out…and he will need to be relaxed. He just is VERY nervous to be out during any medical procedure. He is so very reluctant to relinquish control and awareness of his surrounding. What a man.

I hope this in informative, and if you made it this far- GOD BLESS YOU! Thank you for caring enough to read it all.

3 responses to “A Little Clarification”

Wow, this is a great description. It does make perfect sense, because if the space isn’t there nothing can grow. I hope K is able to find a procedure he’s comfortable with, and hopefully he will relinquish some control so he’s comfortable with the anesthesia! I can’t even imagine being awake during something like that. Hoping you guys get all the information and knowledge you need. Hugs!